Shooting revives gun control proposals in Congress

The shooting in Arizona that killed six people and injured 14 others — including Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — is reviving legislation to impose tighter controls on guns and ammunition.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., is drafting legislation in response to the shooting that would revive a now-expired ban on high-capacity ammunition clips, like the one reportedly used by the 22-year-old suspect to gun down a federal judge, a 9-year-old girl and others at Giffords’ “Congress on your corner” event in Tucson. The alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, reportedly had a magazine holding 31 bullets.

For a decade, ammunition clips with more than 10 bullets were barred under the so-called “assault weapons ban” enacted in 1994. And a handful of states have similar high-capacity clip bans on the books. But Congress and the former Bush administration allowed the federal assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.

“Looking at the number of clips that he was able to fire, from 15 to 20 rounds, we need to look at those and say, ‘Why should an average citizen be able to have that?’” McCarthy told Newsday.

McCarthy is one of Congress’s most ardent gun control supporters, following the 1993 Long Island Island Rail Road shooting that left her husband and son dead.

In the Senate, McCarthy could count on help from some likely allies and fellow gun rights foes, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

Although McCarthy’s bill would focus on high-capacity clips for now, some in Congress later may want to go further by expanding the way mental health information is recorded and accessible in the federal database used for background checks before gun purchases. But gun control advocates know that a streamlined focus on high-capacity clips would have better odds of moving quickly in Congress in the wake of the Arizona shooting.

But the odds for passage are still long, given Republican control of the House and the country’s deep divide over gun rights issues. Gun control has been a political hot potato in the nation’s capital for years.

Other high-profile shootings have prompted new gun control laws from Congress before. In 2007, the Virginia Tech shooting spurred lawmakers to pass legislation that effectively forced states to provide records on residents found to be “mental defective” for inclusion in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. McCarthy sponsored that measure in the House, and President George Bush signed it into law on Jan. 8, 2008.